Oak Hill Gazettehttps://oakhillgazette.com
The community newspaper for Southwest AustinTue, 12 Sep 2017 23:59:43 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.2No animals left behindhttps://oakhillgazette.com/news/2017/09/no-animals-left-behind/
https://oakhillgazette.com/news/2017/09/no-animals-left-behind/#respondTue, 12 Sep 2017 23:58:33 +0000https://oakhillgazette.com/?p=4385Coyote—a dog that has been afraid of people and had difficulty getting into the foster’s car.

by Ann Fowler

AUSTIN – In the last few decades, the status of pets has changed. They’ve gone from the barnyard in your grandparents’ day, to the backyard in your parent’s day, to the bedroom for many current pet owners. For many, pets are part of the family, so they were not going to be left in harm’s way if Austin could help it.

Austin Pets Alive!

As Hurricane Harvey closed in on the Texas coast, Austin Pets Alive sent out a plea: foster all dogs currently in the Austin shelter to make room for Harvey evacuees. Pets in animal shelters in Harvey’s path were in danger of being euthanized due to fear of flooding or staff’s inability to come to work to care for the animals.

Staff at Austin Pets Alive! reached out to shelters to allow animals to come to Austin for the duration.

Maya Gudamaralla of the Villages at Western Oaks heard about APA’s need for fosters and immediately applied. She told the Gazette, “I decided to foster because pets are often overlooked during hurricanes and then are left in harm’s way.”

She was introduced to Coyote, a dog that has been afraid of people and had difficulty getting into the foster’s car.

“Her behavior makes me think she was badly mistreated,” said Gudamaralla. “In the days she has been here she is taking treats from our hand and has become a little more relaxed. We are able to get closer to her without her running away. It will take time, but I think with lots of love she will be fine.”

Coyote’s foster family has nicknamed her Cupcake. She gets along with the Gudamaralla’s dog, Daisy. The family plans to foster her until she is adopted, but they are considering adopting her themselves.

At any given time, APA has about 600 dogs in foster homes around Austin. Christina Felton, an APA volunteer, told the Gazette that number had doubled as people offered to take in dogs—either those already living at APA or those who evacuated in from affected areas—during the storm.

While some were returned to the shelter after the storm, many remain in foster. These families will take their charges to adoption events until they find their forever homes.

In the aftermath of the storm, APA volunteers, led by executive director Dr. Ellen Jefferson, caravanned to Houston and Beaumont to help save more pets and bring them to safety.

An Austin Humane Society emergency pet shelter was activated as floodwaters persisted in Houston and Beaumont, and nearly 200 animals from those areas were brought in to receive medical exams and get cleaned up. APA partnered with the city of Austin to keep those animals safe and comfortable until they could be reunited with their families.

Such visibility may have led to Austin Pets Alive! being listed as an organization worthy of donations by those wanting to help Hurricane Harvey victims.

Donations from the organization’s wish list have been arriving daily, requiring more volunteers to sort them. Some can be used immediately, while others will be stored or shipped to shelter partners in need.

The quick response by Austin Pets Alive! and others contrasted with what happened in New Orleans. Officials learned the hard way in 2005 that many people will not leave their pets—even to save themselves. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, people stayed in harm’s way when pets were not allowed on evacuation buses or in emergency shelters.

Social media showed scores of pets being rescued as floodwaters rose, and when a photo was posted of people sitting outside an emergency shelter because pets weren’t allowed in, that rule quickly changed.

www.austinpetsalive.org

Quade Foundation

This Texas non-profit helps make sure adopted animals get every opportunity to find their happily ever after home. The group provides financial opportunities for education programs, medical assistance, and behavior and training instruction to animal organizations and adopters.

Bob Bridge, secretary of the group, told the Gazette, “Keeping a metropolitan area’s ‘no-kill’ status is no easy task.” He added, “Some adopters later find themselves in predicaments where they may be compelled to return the companion animal because of personal circumstance or inability to meet their animal’s medical needs. Quade Foundation provides assistance for these cases.”

The group is currently providing assistance to APA during the Hurricane Harvey evacuations.

www.quadefoundation.org

The Canine Center for Training and Behavior

In 2005, trainers from the Canine Center, through Best Friends Animal Society, flew to areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina to assess dogs. Working in triage, each dog was quickly evaluated as:

Ready to be reclaimed by its family

Ready for immediate adoption

Needing foster care to receive a little more attention

Not adoptable

The team stands ready to go back into action, but has also offered services to evacuation centers to teach relaxation and enrichment techniques to help animals and their humans better cope.

The group offers discounted pet selection services to help get dogs placed with the right families. It is heartbreaking to hear of a dog being returned to a shelter days or weeks after adoption because “it’s not a good fit.”

Another service the Canine Center offers is helping those who have taken in evacuees and their pets. What happens when the dogs don’t get along? The Canine Center offers deeply discounted rates to help families integrate households.

www.morefunthandirt.com

Pet Stores bring in donations

Local pet stores have made it easy for customers to donate to help Hurricane Harvey victims.

Healthy Pet stores offered a 20 percent discount and no tax on purchased donations. All dog-wash proceeds September 1 through 3 were donated to the cause. All stores were drop-off points for items purchased in-store or not.

Tomlinson stores are accepting monetary donations through Sept. 10 for the Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund, with funds paid out every evening for immediate use.

The Austin Zoo

Companion animals are not the only ones affected by Hurricane Harvey. The Austin Zoo is accepting crates of all sizes to help Victoria’s Texas Zoo, which was ravaged by the storm.

OAK HILL – Hurricane Harvey may be gone, but if Katrina is any indication, the impact will last for decades. From estimated sustained winds of 130 mph at landfall at Rockport, Texas, to nearly 50 inches of rain dumped on portions of the gulf coast, Texas was hit hard.

According to AccuWeather, this storm may be the most costly natural disaster ever in America, costing more than hurricanes Katrina and Sandy combined: $190 billion.

Oak Hill resident Mark Hanna is the spokesman for the Insurance Council of Texas, the largest state insurance association in the United States. His son and wife evacuated from Houston and will stay with him until floodwaters recede.

Hanna said, “Many people had no flood insurance on their homes because they had never seen the effects of a 50-inch rainfall. Flooded rivers, streams and bayous set record levels.”

Drivers lacking comprehensive auto insurance may be left stranded, Hanna said. And he advised people not to attempt to start a car that was submerged as it can create more problems. Hanna suggests having a reputable towing company bring the vehicle to a reputable mechanic who can determine any damage once the engine has dried out.

Hanna lists lessons learned from the historic storm:

Homes built to the state’s stronger building code held up better and with minor to moderate damage compared to homes not built to code.

People who did not evacuate where the storm made landfall all say they would never again want to ride through another hurricane.

Most likely only 1 in 6 homes in the Houston area had flood insurance. No telling how many motorists did not have comprehensive insurance.

Hanna said the uninsured can seek help from the Red Cross, Salvation Army, churches, family friends and neighbors. FEMA may offer possible financial assistance, but that could be months away.

Hanna offered the following suggestions:

The claims process and filing deadlines for Harvey-related damage did not change on September 1.

Claims for policies under the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association and the National Flood Insurance Program are not subject to recent changes in property damage litigation laws, despite recent assertions to the contrary.

Contact the agent or company who sold you the insurance policy to file a claim.

Many insurers may be available in the damaged areas. Check to see if your company has a response team near you.

Document property damage with photos and video as soon as possible and provide this information to your insurance adjuster.

Make temporary repairs if necessary to prevent further damage. Keep receipts for repairs and document all communication with your insurer.

The Texas Department of Insurance Consumer Protection Help Line at 1-800-252-3439 can provide needed information on agents and insurance companies as well as resolve insurance complaints.

Austin’s lessons learned

The city of Austin set up shelter for 700 evacuees, although it was prepared for 7,000. A ‘mega-shelter’ at the Austin Convention Center was planned but ultimately unneeded.

Said District 8 Councilmember Ellen Troxclair, “Flexibility has been a key tool in what has made the City a great partner with the state, other cities, counties and agencies in adapting to what is needed and supplying it. Going from planning for up to 7,000 evacuees to scaling down to 1,500-2,000 has been an excellent exercise in being prepared, but reacting quickly to accommodate changing circumstances.”

Added Troxclair, “I was born in Houston and still have family and friends there who have lost their homes. It has been an amazing sight to see our community, state and country come together for a bigger purpose, helping neighbors.”

Students get drive started

Oak Hill area schools were not impacted by the wrath of Hurricane Harvey, save for a one-day, two-hour delay. But students wasted no time in planning donation drives to help those who were affected by the storm.

Dr. Cathryn Mitchell, principal of Gorzycki Middle School, said the student council set up a donation drive. She added, “We have also been working with Bee Creek United Methodist Church who is working with Burger Center, as well as Park Manor nursing home, who received evacuees.”

Austin Independent School District (AISD) spokeswoman Cristina Nguyen told the Gazette that children evacuated to the Austin area will not miss any school time. “AISD has already begun enrolling students at the shelters in Austin and plan to welcome all evacuee students into AISD.”

In addition, all evacuee families were welcomed to watch varsity sports events last weekend free of charge.

At Small Middle School, the Junior Teen Leadership classes led by Kevin Mullen, David Juarez and Shaun Hopkins, compiled a list of items suggested by the American Red Cross and Austin Pets Alive. The students challenged their peers to bring in as many of the items as possible.

Principal Matthew Nelson said they partnered with Yeti.com, whose staffers picked up hundreds of pounds of donations to deliver to the affected areas.

Said Nelson, “Our kids all wanted to contribute in some way or fashion and we are blown away by their compassion and enthusiasm to help. We are excited that Yeti reached out to us and offered a direct channel to get our collected goods into the right hands.”

OAK HILL – Lynda Rife, public involvement consultant for Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA), told members of the Oak Hill Association of Neighborhoods (OHAN) that last year was spent doing the science portion of the Oak Hill Parkway, such as counting trees and performing archeological studies along the proposed roadway. She said the reports are almost complete.

Environmental impact studies are still underway. Rife said they would receive a Record of Decision (ROD) by next summer.

Also lending their expertise to the discussion were Enoch “Bubba” Needham, project director of Atkins’ central tolls group, Oscar Soliz of CTRMA and Rose Marie Klee of the Texas Department of Transportation.

Soliz said when and if the roadway passes the environmental hurdles, design of the chosen alternative can begin and is expected to take a year and a half. Construction will take at least 3.5 years.

Rife said roadway officials have made changes based on community feedback, such as improving access for businesses along SH 71 north of U.S. 290 West, as well as improving access to Old Bee Caves Road.

Rife said sound walls would be built if reasonable and feasible—so a single property owner bothered by noise will get no relief, but a group of homeowners might.

Carol Cespedes did not feel the loss of hundreds of trees in Oak Hill was worth the tradeoff. Klee said they have designed the corridor to save half the trees originally scheduled to have been removed. “We call them the Carol trees,” she said.

Rife added that revised traffic numbers made them widen the road to three lanes each way from the ‘Y’ to RM 1826.

OHAN treasurer Alan Watts disputed the need for these revised traffic figures, saying historical growth has been 2.17 percent annually. He said an abnormal growth of 4.64 percent in 2015 caused road officials to change to that percentage going forward. Watts did not believe that growth would continue.

Rife said they were required to use the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization federal model for traffic counts.

A.J. Offermann of Zyle Road just wants traffic relief. She said they’ve been working on the project for years and she does believe the area will grow substantially in coming years. “We’re wasting money by waiting,” she said.

It is unclear how, if completed, the roadway would ultimately help with traffic. Although some signals may be bypassed, it appears that this new, larger roadway would simply get traffic to the MoPac rushhour logjam more quickly.

Sometimes signals are not a bad idea. In California, many onramps are signalized to control traffic accessing major highways. According to officials, “By regulating the flow of traffic entering the freeways during peak traffic hours, the overall flow of traffic on the freeways is smoother. The regulated flow means we can accommodate more vehicles per hour on the freeways, shorten commute times, and provide a higher degree of safety.”

There does not appear to be a plan to fix the northbound MoPac bottleneck that starts near Loop 360.

The question of whether the Oak Hill Parkway would be tolled is still up in the air. Watts said he talked with a county commissioner recently who said tolling the road seemed less likely.

In a 2014 finance workshop, a funding simulation exercise was based on an estimate of $650 million. They estimated that 70 percent of people using the tollway would live outside of Oak Hill. If the toll is $2, the estimate is that $159 million would come from drivers who live in Oak Hill. The $650 price tag can be reached with $73 million from State Category 2 funding, $47 million in federal Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) funding, and the remaining $371 million from drivers outside of Oak Hill.

Because the roadway has not passed the environmental hurdles yet, the CAMPO 2040 Plan does not mention the Oak Hill Parkway as a planned roadway, only as a possibility: “CTRMA is currently investigating projects on MoPac south of the river, US 183N, US 183 between US 290 and SH 71E (Bergstrom Expressway), the intersection of US 290 and SH 71 (Oak Hill Parkway), and SH 45SW.”

It is unclear how much higher the price tag will be by the time construction begins—if it does.

OAK HILL – Representatives of the 4.5-acre commercial property that currently houses the Goodwill at the ‘Y’ said owners would like to rezone the property from GR-CO-NP to GR-MU-CO-NP. In addition, they seek to change the floor-to-area ratio (FAR) from 0.21-to-1 to the more typical 1-to-1. They spoke at the June OHAN meeting (Oak Hill Association of Neighborhoods).

Michele Rogerson Lynch, director of land use and entitlements at Metcalfe Wolff Stuart & Williams, said the property owner, Cielo Paso Oak Hill LP, is seeking some changes for both short-term and long-term plans at 7100 U.S 290 West.

Lynch said they were surprised when Planet Fitness suddenly gave notice recently, closing the Oak Hill facility and moving clients to a new one at 6800 Westgate Boulevard. Planet Fitness members were also surprised by the closing. An email announced to members the “Exciting News” that their local club was closing. Several Oak Hill Planet Fitness regulars contacted reported the Westgate location is too far, too small and cramped with equipment placed too close together. Some complained the new location has taken a more partisan political approach—it has on its TVs four Fox channels (including Fox news) and no MSNBC.

Lynch added that Goodwill has a lease that runs for another eight years, so no long-term changes are planned. However, in planning for a restaurant pad for fast-food restaurant Raising Canes, they found that in 1994, conditional overlay language in Ordinance No. 94117-E limited the FAR. The owners believe it should apply to the property as it existed on the date the ordinance was adopted. But city staffers are applying the restriction to current and future development without taking into account property being lost to right-of-way—the Texas Department of Transportation is taking about a half-acre for the right-of-way for the Oak Hill Parkway.

In an appeal, representatives said, “By excluding the portion of the property that had been condemned, staff reduced the maximum FAR from 45,555 square feet to 41,713 square feet.”

They added, “If part of the allowed 45,555 square feet (the calculated FAR for the property at time of adoption of the Ordinance) were included in the right of way which was condemned by TxDOT, then Section 25-8-23 would allow the total square feet of floor area taken to be rebuilt on the remainder property.”

No one could identify the reason for the restriction. Thus far the reduced FAR stands.

Lynch said in redeveloping the property, impervious recover would be reduced from 98 percent to no more than 85 percent.

The proposed restaurant would take up nearly an acre in the parking area of the property. A sedimentation/filtration pond is planned to capture runoff from the entire 4.5-acre lot.

The representatives could not be specific about the future use of the property because Goodwill will likely remain for the length of its lease. They suggested the possibility of a residential component in vertical mixed use. Lynch said the owners live locally and want to see the property enhance the community.

AUSTIN – Oak Hill residents who like to bicycle downtown will find the ride much easier now with the opening of the MoPac Mobility Bridges, a project that has been on the drawing board since 2005.

The project added nearly two miles of bicycle and pedestrian lanes to Austin’s Urban Trail network, thanks to a partnership between city, federal and regional authorities and the Texas Department of Transportation. Construction took about 3.5 years.

Prior to the opening of bridges across Barton Creek and Loop 360, bicyclists were forced to ride with vehicular traffic along the shoulder on MoPac. Once the bridges were opened, Texas Department of Transportation officials wasted little time in replacing the MoPac shoulder previously used by bicyclists with an added vehicle lane.

Windmill Run resident Tom Thayer is an avid bicyclist and has used the bridges several times. He described them as great, and much safer than using south Lamar or other routes. He added that using those bridges shaves 15 minutes off his commute home.

“They really open up bike/pedestrian mobility from SW Austin to the central part of the city,” said Thayer. But he added, “There is a challenge getting from the Barton Creek bridge southbound, but the city has the YBC Trail planned (and partially funded) to provide access from the ‘Y’ to the bridge.”

Thayer envisions bicyclists using the bridges to attend events like Blues on the Green in addition to riding for fun and exercise.

“I can see it becoming a tourist destination as well for those renting bikes,” said Thayer. “Right now, it is the middle of summer and many people don’t even know they are open, so I expect use to increase with time. When the YBC Trail is complete, I think it will get even more use.”

OAK HILL – The Fourth of July was no picnic for local firefighters. Fires and rescues kept them busy for most of the day.

Around 1 p.m., a large 4-acre brush fire was reported near State Highway 45 and MoPac. The Oak Hill, Austin and Manchaca fire departments, in addition to STAR Flight, responded. Fire crews worked the incident until 8 p.m. The cause was a bad conductor on a utility pole, causing an arc.

Austin Fire Department Division Chief Palm Buck told the Gazette, “Mitigating factors included the ambient temperatures and several piles of cedar poles that became involved.”

A 2-acre grass fire near the 10000 block of Circle Drive was reported at about 1:15 p.m. with Oak Hill, Lake Travis, Austin and Westlake fire departments responding. The fire damaged an abandoned structure, shed and vehicle. Fire crews stayed on scene until 4 p.m. The cause was a controlled burn that got out of control.

A small grass fire in the 8000 block of Mowinkle Drive was reported at 9 p.m. Oak Hill Fire Department firefighters had the fire out by 9:30 p.m. Fire officials said Sheriff’s deputies discussed the combination of fireworks and fire danger with residents in the area.

At 11 p.m., a fire was reported burning in the top of a palm tree in the 8900 block of Gallant Fox Road. Oak Hill firefighters had the fire extinguished by 11:45 p.m.

Oak Hill Fire Chief Jeffrey J. Wittig told the Gazette, “The report is not yet complete on this fire, but the top of a tree on fire would most likely be a fireworks-related cause.”

Fire incidents were not the only emergency calls on July Fourth. A wilderness rescue was reported at 2:15 for a person with mild to moderate heat exhaustion at the low water crossing on FM 1826. Rescue took time as that location had limited access. By 3:15 the patient was located and transported to the hospital.

“As you might see from the times provided, we were actively working two fires and a rescue operation at the same time,” said Chief Wittig. “Our area is fortunate to be able to participate in a closest-unit automatic aid agreement with our surrounding Travis County neighboring departments (including Austin). Without that assistance, things would have been much worse yesterday afternoon.”

Chief Buck advises using common sense as the temperatures rise and vegetation dries out. “Use caution with ‘hot work’ outside like welding and mowing. Dispose of cigarettes properly. Don’t throw them out the car windows.”

I suppose some Austinites think the same thing when they see the name Butch Hancock or Stevie Ray Vaughan or Jimmie Dale Gilmore or Jerry Jeff Walker or even Willie Nelson for crissakes.

But I got to Austin later, a decade or two after the Lubbock invasion, the Dallas meander, and the Nashville escape. During the ’90s, LaFave was the leader, the pinnacle, the force, the person you aspired to be like — but never aspired to be, for that was a very unLaFaveish thing to do. No, to be like Jimmy you aspired to be an Austin original, a true Texan singer-songwriter, whether you were from Omaha Nebraska, Portland Maine, Houston Texas, Stillwater Oklahoma or Sebastopol California like me.

I plopped down in Austin Texas in 1991, thanks to bad advice and a free plane ticket. Within three weeks I realized: shoulda gone to Seattle. Would have been a better fit in Seattle. Why? Because despite the big spread in National Geographic, and the big TV show on PBS, I couldn’t find any there here (thank you, Gertrude Stein).

Couldn’t hear a hit song, couldn’t hear a trend. Couldn’t hear something I wish I would have done, couldn’t hear something I’d hear for fun. Couldn’t hear a circus act, an Olympian or a nuisance. Couldn’t hear anything that made me think, well … I would never have heard this in California.

And then I heard Jimmy LaFave. He and guitarist Larry Wilson played Threadgill’s one night in 1992 and I was there, the old location on North Lamar where Janis Joplin once played (or so I’ve heard). What an amazing voice, I thought. Couldn’t stop smiling. This is why I came to Austin, I reckon.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I met LaFave before I heard LaFave because when I met him we were hanging out at Chicago House, the epicenter of the ’90s singer-songwriter movement that spawned local luminaries such as Slaid Cleaves, Mark Viator & Susan Maxey, Betty Elders, Abra Moore, Guy Forsyth and, of course, LaFave. That said, I had no idea who he was at the time. He kind of seemed like a wiseass, and it was confirmed by his friendship with music critic John Conquest. But he said a few things that made me laugh, so he was OK by me.

He asked how I was liking the move to Austin.

“It’s okay, but I haven’t heard anything yet that I think could make its way onto the radio.”

He looked at me, shook his head, and muttered something under his breath.

The second time I saw him (yeah, I can mark these times on my fingers) was at Magnolia’s restaurant, eating a meal by himself. I was at another booth with two women. One of us was greedy. I asked if we could join him (he had a better booth) and he said sure. I didn’t know he was a vegetarian at the time, so I can only assume he was eating fig leaves and I was eating a calves-face sandwich.

The third encounter, (yeah, I’m still counting) I’m walking down the street, Fifth Street to be specific since at the time I always parked at the now-defunct post office downtown. Anyway, I walk down Fifth Street, and who comes walking up to me but Jimmy LaFave.

“Hey,” I say.

“Hey,” he says.

“It’s Mike Jasper.”

“Yeah. I remember.”

“From the Chicago House.”

“Yeah. I remember.”

“Do you know a good dentist?”

Yep. I’m not kidding. I actually asked that. But here’s the thing. I really needed a good dentist, and musicians have crap health care, and here was a musician with good teeth walking down the street.

He didn’t even blink.

“Yeah, I’ve got a great one.”

He gave me the contact info.

The next time I met him was at some weird opening of the old Chicago House at the new Austin Music Hall. I opened for him. About six hours before he went on, meaning, many, many people opened for him.

“Did you ever see my dentist?” he asked. He remembered.

“No,” I said. “She wasn’t on my dental insurance.”

He looked at me, shook his head, and muttered something under his breath.

Good times.

Didn’t see him for years. Always expected to… gigs cross, you know. But somehow they didn’t. Then my next door neighbor told me, “I’m getting married.”

How nice for him. He told me about his wedding plans, wanted it old school Austin, going to have it at the Driskill Hotel, catered, big affair, biggest if possible, flowers, cakes with mannequins, the whole 9 yards. And then he said… fatefully.

“If only I could get Jimmy LaFave to play at the wedding. If only I could afford him.”

I jumped on it. Only because I knew, first hand, how affordable musicians really are. Especially if they have no gigs on the same date.

“I know Jimmy, let me check that out for you. I could probably get him to play the wedding for, I don’t know, $500?” (That figure would be redacted if Jimmy weren’t dying. Or if I had any integrity.)

“That would be awesome!” he said.

“Cool,” I said. And then I thought, hmmm. Wonder if he’ll do it for that?

Turns out I was right. It pays to be a musician. Frequently. Sometimes. OK, rarely. (I’m only talking financially, you know.)

He said, sure, it was lower than usual, but he’d play the gig, since I was the one who asked and he had no other gigs that day. He’d even bring John Inmon, the guitarist from the Lost Gonzo band and a vegetarian himself. (I’m fascinated by vegetarians, although I want no part of it myself.)

Jimmy sounded amazing. That was the best I ever heard him, pure and simple, just LaFave and his guitar and Inmon playing leads and fills over my old sound system made new again by the brilliant sounds of LaFave’s strident tenor, a voice dripping with soul, and it nearly brought tears to my eyes, and it definitely brought tears to others’ eyes.

Afterward, I followed him and John to the food line. Just to see what the hell vegetarians eat.

Last encounter. One to one, anyway. My Californian friend Eric Anderson comes to visit me in Austin. He wants to see the Hill Country, he wants to see the LBJ museum, and he wants to see Jimmy LaFave, his favorite Austin musician. Unfortunately, Jimmy had no gigs lined up during Eric’s stay in Austin. But it turns out Jimmy is, indeed, in town.

“Would you like to meet Jimmy?” I ask.

Eric says yes. What the hell else would he say?

Jimmy agreed to meet me and Eric for breakfast at Opal Divine’s on South Congress. It went well, and I was a hero in Eric’s eyes. At some point, Eric went to the bathroom and Jimmy and I were left together in an awkward silence.

“You gigging?” he asked.

“No, not lately.”

He took a deep breath, turned his head, and muttered … something.

I could never really hold a conversation with Jimmy. How the hell do you talk to an idol? You don’t. You just genuflect and hope for the best. But LaFave always came through for me. Always. I asked for a dentist, and he said yes. I asked him to play a wedding, and he said yes. I asked him to meet a fan from California, and he said yes.

But I wanted him to live forever, or at least outlive me, and someone, somewhere said no.

The last time I saw Jimmy LaFave was on stage at Threadgill’s, April 21, the world headquarters downtown, the night when the Austin Chronicle wrote about his impending doom from an aggressive form of cancer called sarcoma — as if regular cancer wasn’t aggressive enough. I got off work, thanks to the compassion and understanding of my supervisors, and arrived just in time to hear him sing a song from his idol, Woody Guthrie, “This Land Is Your Land.”

Oddly, the last time I saw Townes Van Zandt, he recited a Woody Guthrie poem on the upstairs stage of the Chicago House during one of my Wednesday open mics back in the day, 1995 I’m thinking. Guess there’s a certain symmetry in that.

Yep. One more time I got to hear Jimmy LaFave’s still amazing, if weakened, vocals pierce the air of a crisp spring Austin evening. One last time I got to be part of his night tribe.

Sonofabitch. The heart and soul of Austin music is dying, and there ain’t a damn thing we can do about it Austinites. Just gotta turn our heads away, cover our eyes, and mutter a little prayer or two.

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has scheduled an update workshop on May 23 for the proposed Oak Hill Parkway. The goal is to relieve traffic congestion along U.S. 290 West from MoPac through the ‘Y’ to FM 1826. TxDOT wants to create a tollway to do just that, with the project in the fifth year of an environmental impact study (EIS).

At the meeting, official will provide the latest information about the EIS, the noise analysis process and updated tree surveys.

Officials have chosen project designs known as Alternatives A and C for the roadway, and will measure them against the No-Build Alternative, an unlikely scenario given it’s status as the 55th most congested roadway in Texas according to the Texas A&M Transportation Institute.

U.S. 290 was built as a state highway in 1927, while State Highway 71 was created as a Farm-to-Market Road in 1944. In the 1980s, the state built the raised portion of the roadway from MoPac to Joe Tanner. It is the remaining stretch through William Cannon and the ‘Y’ that continue to cause traffic headaches for commuters.

A traffic survey shows that the traffic jams cost drivers 173,000 hours of delay per mile annually through this stretch of road.

Some locals disagree with the road planners’ insistence in an elevated multi-lane roadway that would give a much faster commute to a log-jammed MoPac, while others just want the traffic nightmare to end.

Roadway officials note that traffic demand on this corridor demands a project that meets the traffic demand along the corridor today as well as future traffic projections.

Some local residents would like officials to work on getting people out of their cars through mass transit or telecommuting. Despite heavy congestion seen daily through the ‘Y’ and along MoPac – the main roadways in and out of Oak Hill — Capital Metro has proposed removing almost all local service based on a “low residential density”, while no mention is made of the very high traffic density.

Construction of wider lanes through the area will necessitate someday removing the Oak Hill Flyer’s current park and ride at William Cannon and U.S. 290 West, but it is unclear where a new one might go and how or if the Oak Hill Parkway design will accommodate it.

Local resident Tom Thayer hopes a new park and ride west of the ‘Y’ is chosen to spare people having to suffer the congestion through the ‘Y.’

As TxDOT waits for the completion of the EIS, interim intersection fixes were designed to help in the short-term. Simple fixes at Convict Hill and FM 1826 have allowed two lanes to turn off the busy roadway. But the continuous-flow intersection at William Cannon Drive and U.S. 290 west has resulted in a 35 percent increase in accidents according to Austin Police Department data, plus complaints from drivers on William Cannon who say their wait times have dramatically increased.

Thayer plans to attend the workshop. He told the Gazette, “The Oak Hill Parkway is very important to Oak Hill as evidenced by the traffic at rush hour. However, it is such an important project that it is vital to get it right as the end product will affect Oak Hill for years to come.”

Thayer does not believe a tollway is the best design for the roadway, and points to a recent bill to expand private toll roads, HB 2861, that was defeated in the Texas Legislature. The Oak Hill Parkway was specifically mentioned in that bill.

“Around the state, public sentiment is turning against the notion that all new roads should be toll roads,” Thayer said.

“We don’t comment on legislation during session,” said TxDOT’s Veronica Beyer. Those who pay attention to how the Texas Legislature works know that text from a defeated bill may show up as an amendment to another bill before session ends.

Thayer points out, “The legislature and the voters have authorized billions in transportation funding that is not to be used for toll roads. Is anyone fighting for Oak Hill to get any of this money?”

Oak Hill Parkway officials point out, “… if other funding sources become available to fund construction and maintenance of the Oak Hill Parkway project, and the region prioritizes spending that money on the Oak Hill Parkway, it would not need to be tolled.”

Those unable to attend the Oak Hill Parkway update workshop can find information posted online at www.OakHillParkway.com in late May.

The workshop will be held Tuesday, May 23, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Oak Hill United Methodist Church – Children’s Center, 7815 U.S. 290 West.

Justice of the Peace Susan Steeg is passionate about reducing truancy in Travis County Precinct 3. In 2010 she established the first Juvenile Case Management Program in the county’s justice courts. Michael Gallardo is the program director.

Such a program is a natural fit for Judge Steeg, whose job includes overseeing Truancy Court for students age 12 and above. She said contributing factors for truancy include:

Family history of truancy

Housing insecurity/high mobility

Misbehavior

Parental incarceration

The last factor is particularly troubling to Steeg as 101 truant students had parents in jail/prison totaling more than 2,200 days.

Any parent temporarily away from a child can be difficult for that child.

If that parent is away on military duty, the child can take solace in proudly telling his friends about it. Often the returning parent tries to surprise the child in the classroom or some other public setting.

But imagine if that parent has been jailed due to a conviction—or worse, incarcerated awaiting trial. The child is likely too embarrassed to share this information. There will be no ticker-tape parade when that parent returns home.

Gallardo said, “They have to keep it buried deep down inside because the shame and stigma associated with it is so, so great. We teach them that it’s okay to love your mom and your dad, it’s okay to love yourself.” He likened the situation to a bicycle wheel, “If one spoke is off, it changes the alignment of the bicycle.”

According to data from the Texas Criminal Justice System, 72 percent of those in Travis County jails are pre-trial detainees—either they could not pay bail or were not given the opportunity. That could affect 70 of the 101 truants.

Jorge Renaud of Texas Advocates for Justice told the Gazette, “Of the five largest counties, Travis County has the highest rate of non-release of folks eligible for release on PR bond, and no one wants to accept the blame, but that rests with judges.”

Renaud said many local judges are unwilling to collaborate with pre-trial service recommendations to release people on personal recognizance bonds. Even worse are detainees who are too poor to afford bail. Said Renaud, “Many can’t afford the $1,000 or so that takes, so they sit in jail.”

He added, “How does this impact? My god, how does it not? People can lose jobs in the 17-day-average stay in the county. They can miss a car payment, and since many have gotten their cars from local dealerships, that missed payment could mean being without. They can go into hock with a payday loan company in an effort to stay current, with the incredibly high repayment interest that goes along with that. And it could mean accepting a plea of guilty just to get out, with a felony probation on their record. Children can be stigmatized, and often are, by having a parent in jail/prison.”

Steeg and Gallardo are mindful of this impact on local students. Gallardo works with truant students, their care-givers and incarcerated parents to ensure the child stays in school.

In 2015, Steeg and Gallardo saw significant improvements in attendance after assigning an intern to make weekly calls to assist Williams Elementary School with truancy prevention. In those four weeks, 92 phone calls were made, while five home visits and five conferences were held. The month before the program saw 99 unexcused absences, the month after that number dropped to 24. Unexcused tardy numbers dropped from 283 to 113. Documented illness reports rose from 9 to 58.

This spring, the preventative court assistance program will last 10 weeks, with officials anticipating improved attendance rates for at-risk students.

For some students, missing class early in elementary school can translate into missing learned academic skills that will only compound the child’s problems as he is socially promoted.

Gallardo said he works with the family to get the child into a school that will help, such as the Austin Can Academy.

In addition, he has the student perform experiential activities, like donning a backpack with a single book that represents “stress.” Then more “stress” books are added, showing the student how difficult it can be to carry that stress. He teaches these students how internalizing their fears works against them.

Gallardo said it is important to teach these children that they and their families are still beautiful, despite current, temporary circumstances.

The incarcerated parents find their children fear they may follow that parent’s footsteps into the jail system, so working with the families as a whole will hopefully break that cycle, he explained.

Gallardo said telling a child that he is beautiful, smart and worthwhile instills confidence in the child. Lacking that barometer can make the child turn to drugs or crime.

Gallardo and his interns are working with 18 students. Those 18 students now have a chance at a better life thanks to the truancy prevention program run by people who care to make a difference.

The Oak Hill Golf Range, home to weekend linksmen for three decades, announced its plan to close on Sunday, May 14.

Officials from Baylor Scott and White recently unveiled a proposal to purchase the property if they could get permits to build a 50-bed hospital.

J. Michael Ussery owns the property. He told the Gazette in March that he has a letter of agreement to sell the property, although the timeline of the sale would depend on city approval of the project.

Ussery purchased the property in 2005. “Inevitably something was going to be done with this property,” he said.

On April 22 the Golf Range posted its intention to close on its website: “After 30 years of operation, Oak Hill Golf Range will close permanently on Sunday, May 14, 2017. The property is being sold to make way for development of a Baylor, Scott & White hospital. We thank all of the many golfers who made Oak Hill Range their place to practice over the years.”

But the hospital is not ready to announce a done-deal just yet.

Julie Smith, director of media relations for Baylor, Scott & White Health, provided this statement to the Gazette: “We are always looking for opportunities to increase access and provide quality health care to more Texans, and we continue to evaluate how we can become further integrated in the Austin/Round Rock market and better serve the community. We do not have anything to announce at this time.”

Evenings and weekends are always busy at the driving range, and this past Sunday was no different, with two-dozen golfers honing their skills under sunny skies. One of those was 5-year-old Nate Evans, accompanied by his dad, Todd. The Evans family lives near Nutty Brown Road and have been frequenting the Oak Hill Golf Range for the past two months.

Between practice swings, Nate said his favorite golfer is Jordan Spieth. Todd would occasionally help Nate with his stance, but the main goal was for Nate to have fun.

Asked where they will go when the driving range closes, Todd said they would likely head to a facility in Dripping Springs. But, Todd lamented, the benefit of using the Oak Hill Golf Range was its proximity to U.S. 290 West. He pointed out that his son’s enthusiasm can be somewhat loud, and the traffic noise made it barely noticeable.